Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

Above, Barack Obama with his half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.

When News21 reporters talked to immigrants around the country about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, we found that many identified with him, not only because Obama is a minority, but because his multi-ethnic background and peripatetic childhood gave him a taste of the immigrant experience.

Now, Filipino-American Sam Cacas, writing for Asian Week, has declared Obama to be the first “BlAsian” presidential candidate—that is, black and Asian. “BlAsian in the combined biological family sense,” Cacas explains, going on to quote Obama’s campaign book, The Audacity of Hope.

“In a sense, I have no choice but to believe in this vision of America. As a child of a black man and a white woman, someone who was born in the racial melting pot of Hawaii, with a sister who is half-Indonesian but who’s usually mistaken for Mexican or Puerto Rican, and a brother-in-law and niece of Chinese descent, with some blood relatives who resemble Margaret Thatcher and others who could pass for Bernie Mac, I’ve never had the option of restricting my loyalties on the basis of race or measuring my worth on the basis of tribe.”

Could the “BlAsian” label simply be another sign that Obama is a post-racial candidate? Or are Latinos and Asians backing the Democrat because he functions as a mirror for almost every racial group?

See News21’s video montage for more immigrants’ perspectives on Obama, and check out Mira Jang’s investigation of Asian voters trending Democratic.